David Lammy Quotes

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David Lammy

Profession : Politician

Birth : July 19, 1972

Many single mothers do a heroic job looking after their children, as mine did with us; but as she found, it becomes twice as hard to set boundaries with half the number of parents.

David Lammy

Mum worked nonstop, doing two, sometimes three, jobs throughout the 80s.

David Lammy

If companies shared profits with their workers, employers and employees would have a greater mutual interest in each other's success.

David Lammy

Edgy' music has always formed the cornerstone to any teenage rebellion. Most indulge in it precisely because adults like me don't like them doing so.

David Lammy

We cannot afford to lose talented young black people, who make it to university, overseas, or worse, to let other talented black people be put off by the notion that university is somehow not for them.

David Lammy

While at Harvard, I was struck by the palpable sense of noblesse oblige that surrounds their sophisticated outreach and bursary programmes. It is almost as if they view extending opportunity to disadvantaged individuals as their highest mission.

David Lammy

A university education is a privilege, but we should be proud that in Britain it is also a right, no matter what your income or class or ethnic background.

David Lammy

It is hard to speak the truth about valued national institutions. But when they are not fit for purpose, we must speak out.

David Lammy

As the MP for an area like Tottenham you quickly learn that the factors leading to unemployment are as numerous as they are diverse.

David Lammy

To tackle the scourge of young unemployment we need to be ambitious.

David Lammy

We should not let those with a political agenda use London's growing population to support their anti-immigration rhetoric, and we should challenge those who want to label London's global attraction a flaw rather than a strength.

David Lammy

The New Labour doctrine that skills training was the responsibility of employers was flawed. The idea that employers should take on a bigger role ignores the reality that employers have no incentive to train staff to leave. We can hardly expect Tesco to train checkout staff to become dental nurses.

David Lammy

Our political class obsesses over social mobility from one generation to the next - whether or not people are doing better than their parents did - but we rarely talk about those who are already in work and want to progress.

David Lammy

Mum eventually graduated with a City & Guilds certificate that hung proudly on our living room wall throughout my childhood.

David Lammy

The idea of a family sitting round the kitchen table and carefully planning their future family size based on the certainty of years to come is a complete fantasy. Back in the real world, jobs are lost, livelihoods taken away, families break apart, partners leave or pass away.

David Lammy

Plenty of people are intrigued by their family history. Growing up as the son of West Indian immigrants who moved to London in the 1950s and 60s, I was especially fascinated by anecdotes about the lives of my Guyanese relatives, which seemed a million miles away from Tottenham's Broadwater Farm estate.

David Lammy

Parents' evenings were a big event in our social calendar and school reports were taken very seriously; 'C' was not a grade my mother recognised. Her favourite shop was WH Smith, where every week there would be a new book or pen or calculator to buy. But most importantly, she was my best friend.

David Lammy

If we want to raise the aspirations of young men, we should be praising their achievements, not talking them down.

David Lammy

We have to challenge head-on the way the BNP takes legitimate concerns and manipulates them in the interests of its fascist agenda.

David Lammy

As a young man, I was angry about all things legal.

David Lammy